She'd been hired the day before. [3]:115 It did not directly puncture any of the fuel tanks, but it sent out a pressure shockwave that ruptured the number 5 fuel tank at its weakest point, just above the undercarriage. 14.43.37 - Controller: "So, at your convenience, you have priority to land.". 14.43.59 - Aircraft instrument: "Whoop whoop pull up; (GPWS alarm, gong). Whatever she wanted she bought," Tassadit says. Co-pilot: Le Bourget, Le Bourget, Le Bourget. Tassadit takes me into Kenza's bedroom, with the mauve flowered wallpaper the dead girl had chosen the year before. And I imagine her mopping floors in the school down the road to pay for Kenza's clothes. The official investigation was conducted by France's accident investigation bureau, the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA). "I don't want money, I want my daughter," Tassadit says hopelessly. The airline suggested that the Concorde "was already on fire when its wheels hit the titanium strip, and that around 20 first-hand witnesses had confirmed that the plane seemed to be on fire immediately after it began its take-off roll". "It hurts me like it hurts her mother," Madjid tells me, as if asserting his own right to grieve. Air France Flight 4590 was an international charter flight, from Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris to John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, flown by an Arospatiale-BAC Concorde. Rxrenesis8/Getty. [22], Air France's Concorde operation had been a money-losing venture, and it is claimed that the aeroplane had been kept in service as a matter of national pride;[23] British Airways claimed to make a profit on its Concorde operations. The day after the Concorde crash, when Djida learned that Kenza had been killed, she telephoned her husband Ahcene, who was staying near Bejaia. [3]:155[30][BEA 5], The final report was issued on 16 January 2002. I heard a big explosion, I didn't know what was going on at all. Kenza Rachid died in the Concorde crash, but few know her name. Controller: Beginning reception of a Middle Marker. Alice looked out and saw the hotel receptionist with his arms outstretched, telling her to jump. In September 2005, Henri Perrier, the former head of the Concorde division atArospatiale, and Jacques Herubel, the Concorde chief engineer, came under investigation for negligence: a report stated that the company had more than 70 incidents involving Concorde tyres between 1979 and 2000, but had failed to take appropriate steps based upon these incidents. [43], In June 2010, two groups attempted, unsuccessfully, to revive Concorde for "Heritage" flights in time for the 2012 Olympics. On25 July2000, it crashed into a hotel inGonesse, France. Co-pilot: Well received (fire alarm, gong, three switch sounds). (It was later found in an Air France maintenance workshop. ", Get email updates with the day's biggest stories. November 1985: Tyre burst on a BA plane leaving Heathrow, causing damage to the landing gear door and fuel tank. Shoes are lined up on the landing of the Rachids' fourth floor walk-up, a Muslim custom intended to keep street dirt out of the home. ", 14.44.18 - Controller: "Fire service leader, correction, the Concorde is returning to runway zero nine in the opposite direction. She believes the experience has definitely changed her and that it may even have influenced her decision to go into teaching. The report showed. As a result, the debris from the tire punctured a fuel tank, causing a huge flame to erupt under the wing of Concorde. Analysis of test results revealed the level of kinetic energy necessary to cause the rupture of fuel tank. All one hundred passengers and nine crew members on board the flight died. The balcony door is open. Russia: 2000 1 Victims of the Kursk submarine disaster Bahrain: 2000 3 Victims of Gulf Air Flight 072 Cuba: 2000 3 Death of former Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau Austria: 2000 2 Victims of the Kaprun disaster Continental's lawyers argued that Concorde was not fit to fly, citing design faults and maintenance failures. The original - of Kenza in a gondola on a school trip to Venice - sits before her on the table, but Tassadit seems interested only in the newspaper medallion; it is the first public recognition of her daughter's death, more than a week after the Concorde crash. [26], Despite the accident, Concorde was still considered among the world's safest aircraft. Date: 25 July 2000. Tassadit is dressed in Kabyle fashion, with a scarf tied turban-like on her head, and a long, brightly coloured dress. Air France Flight 4590 an Accident . Write by: . At the time I was pretty traumatised. She is especially proud of a framed photo of Kenza as bridesmaid at the wedding of the daughter of Tassadit's best friend, Djida Driss (54), from across the street in Garges. 14.43.46 - Pilot: "Are (unclear) you cutting engine two; (end of smoke alarm). All 109 passengers and crew died and four people on the ground were killed when the New York-bound Concorde crashed at Gonesse near Paris on the afternoon of July 25 this year. This information is part of Stamboom Familie Rudy en Elke by Rudy Wage on Genealogy Online. The court ruled that the crash resulted from a piece of metal from a Continental jet that was left on the runway; the object punctured a tyre on the Concorde and then ruptured a fuel tank. All 100 passengers, nine crew and four of Ms Fricheteau's staff members died. The crash of Air France Flight 4590 was the only fatal accident involving the Concorde, which first took to the skies in 1969, becoming an emblem of trans-Atlantic luxury travel. 14.44.03 - Fire service leader: "De Gaulle tower from fire service leader.". [3]:2135[4][5], The cockpit crew consisted of the following:[3]:1820[6], The wind at the airport was light and variable that day, and was reported to the cockpit crew as an eight-knot (15km/h; 9mph) tailwind as they lined up on runway 26R. The American was a retired Air France employee, but the. Departure was delayed by about one hour because the crew had requested a replacement of the thrust reverser pneumatic motor of the no. Mechanic: Breakdown, eng, breakdown engine two (two sounds of switches, followed by fire alarm). I jumped and ran for my life. Due to the asymmetric thrust, the starboard wing lifted, banking the aircraft to over 100 degrees. Page 159: "14h40m01s it can be deduced that, for the crew, the aircraft weight at which the takeoff was commenced was 185,880kg, for a MTOW of 185,070kg". I was always in such a hurry for her to come home." ", Speaking from her family home in France she told Mirror Online: I can remember all of it. The Captain was Pilot Flying (PF), the First Officer (FO) was Pilot Not Flying (PNF). FLIGHT CLEARED for takeoff at 4:42.17 p.m. A Japanese tourist was on a 747 sat on the runway at Charles de Gaulle he too snapped pictures of the doomed airliner as it headed for disaster. Pilot: (unclear) Air France flight 4590, flight of a Concorde supersonic airplane that crashed in Gonesse, a suburb of Paris, on July 25, 2000. Co-pilot: The gear wont come up (fire alarm rings). Engine problems occurred in engine number 2 and, briefly, in engine number 1. Getty Images ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW 14.44 (4.44 pm) - Aircraft instrument: "Whoop whoop pull up; (GPWS alarm). During the Concorde's subsequent takeoff run this piece ofdebris, still lying on the runway, cut atyre, rupturing it. The NTSB described those incidents as "potentially catastrophic", because they were caused by blown tyres during takeoff. "The leaking fuel caught light and a very violent fire ensued throughout the duration of the flight. It does still trouble me to a certain extent. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. On July 25, 2000, a fully booked flight of the Concorde was set to depart from the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport en route to New York. Controller: Concorde zero 4590, you have flames (unclear) you have flames behind you. Some are simple plaques, others more elaborate in design. Leaking fuel gushing out from the bottom of the wing was most likely ignited either by an electric arc in the landing gear bay (debris cutting the landing gear wire) or through contact with hot parts of the engine. [42] Air France stopped flights in May 2003, followed by British Airways five months later. Co-pilot: No (two switch noises). he wind at the airport was light and variable that day, and was reported to the cockpit crew as an eight knot tail wind as they lined up on runway 26R. 14.43.49 - Co-pilot: "The airspeed indicator; (sound of switch, end of ringing). Many believe this event accelerated the retirement of the Concorde in 2003. But in all those incidents it was a piece of flying metal - from the undercarriage or water deflectors - that caused the damage, not tyre rubber itself. At the point of ignition, engines one and two both surged and lost all power, but engine one slowly recovered over the next few seconds. When it stood at the end of the runway, ready to roll, it was over its approved maximum takeoff weight for the given conditions. The Concorde was overweight for the given conditions, with an excessively aft centre of gravity and taking off downwind. The type was finally retired in 2003: May at Air France; October at British Airways. She was staying in the Hotelissimo in Gonesse and had been in her room for just 30 minutes when the stricken Air France Concorde flight 4590 plummeted on to it, exploding upon impact killing 109 people on the plane and four on the ground. Time: 16:42 17 sec (local time) Control tower: "Air France 4590, runway 26 right, wind zero 90 knots (sic . Concorde Crash site & memorial (27818400257).jpg 6,900 4,600; 6.2 MB. "The July 25 accident shows that the destruction of a tyre, an event that we cannot say will not recur, had catastrophic consequences in a short period of time, preventing the crew from rectifying the situation," the report says. After her arranged marriage to Madjid, her first baby, a boy, was stillborn. [3]:17 A large plume of flame developed, and the flight engineer shut down engine 2 in response to a fire warning and the captain's command. Pilot: (unclear, sounds like exertion). Captain Marc Dubois has headphones on, listening to opera. "In the Prophet's time there were only camels, no means of mass transportation. The resulting financial losses led both British Airways and Air France to make New York City their only regular flight destination. The passengers were on their way to board the cruise ship MS Deutschland in New York for a 16-day cruise to Manta, Ecuador. [46], In March 2008, Bernard Farret, a deputy prosecutor in Pontoise, outside Paris, asked judges to bring manslaughter charges against Continental Airlines and two of its employees John Taylor, the mechanic who replaced the wear strip on the DC-10, and his manager Stanley Ford alleging negligence in the way the repair was carried out. 14:42.35 - Unidentified voice on radio channel: "Go on, Christian.". Co-pilot: Well received. When Air France flight 4590 crashed into the roadside Hotelissimo near Roissy airport on July 25th, it killed 109 passengers and crew and four hotel chambermaids. The pilot flying, First Officer Pierre-Cdric Bonin, stares dully at the instrument panel. Page 155: "In conclusion, nothing in the research undertaken indicates that the absence of the spacer contributed in any way to the accident on 25 July 2000", Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety, "ASN Aircraft accident Arospatiale / BAC Concorde 101 F-BTSC Gonesse", "How Concorde Pushed the Limits Then Pushed Them Too Far Disaster and Aftermath", "Accident on 25July2000 at La Patte d'Oie in Gonesse (95) to the Concorde registered F-BTSC operated by Air France (REPORT translation f-sc000725a)", "F-BTSC Air France Arospatiale/BAC Concorde", "Metal Part Maybe Came From Continental Jet", "Accident on 25 July 2000 at "La Patte d'Oie" in Gonesse (95), to the Concorde, registered F-BTSC, operated by Air France (Preliminary report translation f-sc000725pa)", "The damaged hotel and the scorched field show the impact of the crash, CBS News", "French police and rescue service workers inspect the debris of the hotel and the crashed jet", "ANNEXE 2 Transcription de l'enregistreur phonique", Mori to send messages to Chirac, Schroeder over Concorde, "N13067 Continental Air Lines McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 cn 47866 / 149", "Air France grounds Concorde until cause of crash is known", "The Concorde belies those who foresaw its extinction", "Could Concorde ever fly again? By the time Air France Flight 4590 began its takeoff, the chartered Concorde was almost 80 minutes behind schedule. It returned to service on November 7, 2001, following the implementation of various modifications to the airframe, but to limited commercial success. Aborting the takeoff would have led to a high-speed runway excursion and collapse of the landing gear, which also would have caused the aircraft to crash. Air France Flight 4590was aConcordeflight operated byAir Francewhich was scheduled to fly fromCharles de Gaulle International Airportnear Paris, toJohnF. Kennedy International Airportin New York City. Tassadit sits behind a low table, staring into space as she clutches a page from the morning's Le Parisien tabloid. Rajeenee Chundunsing (41), from Mauritius, was raising two children alone and had worked at the Hotelissimo for a year. The victims of the AF4590 crash include all 109 people on board and five who died on the ground when the plane crashed into the Hotelissimo. One of the boys told me she was the prettiest girl in Garges," she murmurs. "I couldn't refuse her anything. Knowing that the iconic Concorde was due to take-off any moment, the woman had her video camera on record. "Pilot: "Too late (unclear). A large chunk of tyre debris (4.5 kilograms or 9.9 pounds) struck the underside of the aircraft's wing at an estimated speed of 140 metres per second (310mph). Leaking fuel gushing out from the bottom of the wing was most likely ignited by an electric arc in the landing gear bay or through contact with severed electrical cables. As it left the gate, it was loaded such that the centre of gravity was excessively faraft. The official transcript from the cockpit voice recorder of the Air France Concorde Flight 4590 showed that the pilots were unaware anything was wrong until alerted by the control tower at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. The aircraft was overloaded by 810 kilograms (1,790lb) above the maximum safe takeoff weight. And it all started with Air France Flight 4590 in 2000. "It has holes in it and in some of these holes appear to be Cherry aeronautical rivets. The following 3 files are in this category, out of 3 total. Section 1.16.7.3 "The Fuel in Tank 5" (page 118): "Taking into account these calculations, we may consider that the quantity of fuel in tank 5 was practically that which was loaded on the apron, which represents around 94% of the total volume of the tank". The Air France victims' families have been mourning following the discovery of the plane's wreckage A young boy on his way back to school, two oil company workers heading home to their. Kenza's parents cannot read or write, and her older brothers are rarely home. 14.43.34 - Controller: "Beginning reception of a Middle Marker. Although Kenza's death passed almost unnoticed in the French press, it was widely covered in Algerian newspapers, and large crowds are expected for her burial in the family plot in her parents' home town of Bejaia, on the coast 160km east of Algiers. Pilot: Confirmed. There are few grainy images of Concorde's flight to tragedy, but those that exist show the true horror of the disaster. In air crashes, compensation is usually a function of the victim's age, nationality and salary, but Abdelghani Amara, the Algerian consul, is determined that Kenza's relatives should be treated like those of the richest German who died on the Concorde. [47][50][51] It was alleged that Perrier, Hrubel, and Frantzen knew that the plane's fuel tanks could be susceptible to damage from foreign objects, but nonetheless allowed it to fly. People have said to me that when people are in those sort of situations, one of two things happen. 14.42.43 - Mechanic: "We have four heated up; (sound of switch). A twelve-inch spacer that normally keeps the left main landing gear in alignment had not been replaced after recent maintenance; however, the French Bureau for Accident Investigation concluded that this did not contribute to the accident. On 6 December 2010, Continental Airlines was found criminally responsible for the disaster by a Parisian court and was fined 200,000 ($271,628) and ordered to pay Air France1 million. But when the plane crashed to the ground in a ball of flames killing 113 people shattering the supersonic dream that had made the world a smaller place. Taylor was given a 15-month suspended sentence, while Ford, Perrier, Hrubel, and Frantzen were cleared of all charges. Explore the world of Concorde with Heritage Concorde. Four of the individuals were acquitted, but John Taylor, the Continental mechanic who fitted the metal strip that fell from the airliner was fined 1,700 and given a 15-month suspended jail sentence. Trailing a plume of flames, it crashed into a hotel near Charles de Gaulle airport. I did have nightmares at the time. The Concorde would have needed at least 3km of runway to abort safely. Alice said: I like to prioritise things I think are important. While taking off, the aircraft ran over debris on the runway, blowing a tyre and puncturing a fuel tank, leading to fire and engine failure. "He was only supposed to ask them to phone me, but as soon as she saw his face, Tassadit begged him to tell her. It shows that the crew, who were unable to retract the undercarriage, had lost all power in one engine and could neither accelerate nor gain altitude, tried desperately to reach Le Bourget airport, nearby. "She walks in circles or stands on the balcony, watching the path Kenza used to come home. Djida Driss stays with her friend at night. [54], The Parisian court also ruled that Continental would have to pay 70% of any compensation claims. Almost immediately after takeoff,. Continental mechanic John Taylor was given a 15-month suspended sentence, while another airline operative and three French officials were cleared of all charges. Pilot: (unclear, sounds like exertion). Abdelkader Zaoui, the local imam, says half of its 40,000 residents are Muslims. [35][49], At the same time, charges were laid against Henri Perrier, head of the Concorde program at Arospatiale, Jacques Hrubel, Concorde's chief engineer, and Claude Frantzen, head of DGAC, the French airline regulator. She wasn't on the plane. [24][25] According to Jock Lowe, a Concorde pilot, until the crash of Air France Flight 4590 at Paris, the British Airways Concorde operation made a net average profit of about 30M (equivalent to 44M in 2019) a year. Top (noise similar to engines increasing power). Doomed: The Air France Concorde on fire moments before it crashed, Then and now: Alice as she was then and today 15 years later, Footage: The plane crash was caught on film, Supersonic: Concorde was the king of the skies thanks to it's speed over long distances, Smoking: The crash site of the doomed Concorde plane, Death: More than 100 people died in when Concorde crashed near Paris, Aftermath: Investigators discovered the plane had not been looked after properly, Death: Everyone on the Concorde plane died, Painstaking: Investigators went through the wreckage piece by piece to find out why the Concorde crashed. Her father, Madjid, now 61, came to join his father in France in 1957. The Concorde fleet was grounded after the crash, but started to fly again 15 months after the crash. This wear strip had been replaced atTel Aviv, Israel, during aC checkon 11 June 2000. Co-pilot: Negative, were trying Le Bourget (four switching sounds). The sum alluded to by insurance experts - as high as a million dollars - could drastically change the life of this broken family. )[35] This skewed the alignment of the landing gear because a strut was able to wobble in any direction with 3 of movement. Most of the Rachids' images of Kenza's 19 years are small ID photos taken in photo booths. Leaking fuel then ignited causing the fire. She said after a few weeks we'd go to Algeria for a holiday. The Gonesse monument consists of a piece of transparent glass with a piece of an aircraft wing jutting through. The French appeals court, while overturning the criminal rulings by the Parisian court, affirmed the civil ruling and left Continental liable for the compensation claims. 13.58 Crew contacts control tower to plan pre-flight sequence. New York-bound Air France Flight 4590 had malfunctioned during take-off, hitting debris on the runway that blew a tyre and sent it crashing in a ball of flames into her hotel. It is one of those things that you can't pinpoint when the recovery finished. He died on August 11, 2000 in Oostburg, ZL.NL. It is a long time ago though, it is not fresh in my mind still, but it is definitely a date that won't be forgotten. I don't think it is an overly negative thing. The left wing of supersonic passenger airliner Concorde, Air France Flight 4590, bursts into flame on take off from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport,. [52], The trial ran in a Parisian court from February to December 2010. The aircraft was leased to Air France on 6 January 1976. Alphonsus Hendricus Pielaat was born on March 3, 1912 in Hoofdplaat, ZL.NL. 35,000 feet above the night-dark waves, dim overhead lights illuminate the cockpit of Air France flight 447. ", Yet faith is little comfort to Tassadit. [3]:134135 The aircraft was unable to climb or accelerate, and its speed decayed during the course of its brief flight.